With event two attracting a who’s who of poker to the felt, the £2,500 H.O.R.S.E freezeout had about as much value as a heads up battle with Patrick Antonius. Among the 110 ambushing the Empire Casino, Leicester Square were Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson not to mention more home-grown talent such as Joe Beevers, Tony Bloom, Paul Jackson, Richard Ashby, Devilfish and Roland de Wolfe. Whilst defending champion Thomas Bihl (pictured) joined Layne Flack, Mickey Wernick and Erik Seidel in the early shower (that’s some image), Phil Ivey would prove his worth by cementing his place at the top of the pile and setting the early pace. Also running well were Isaac Haxton, Bruce Yamron and the legendary Wood Deck.
Day two was an eventful affair, if only for the tomfoolery of Phil Hellmuth. With his once commanding stack dwindling by the second, Hellmuth unleashed his wrath on the dealer and the surrounding players, the Poker Brat justifying his moniker with a number of unprovoked tantrums. Eventually, the 11 time bracelet winner would be our final departure of the day, Hellmuth’s A-K failing to improve against Sherkhan Farnood’s pocket threes in a hand of hold’em.
With players wiping the sleep out of their eyes for day three, it didn’t take long for a final table to emerge, the exits of Raul Paez, Yuval Bronshtein and Erik Albinsson leaving us with a final table tougher than a barbed-wire sandwich. In fact, not only were there four bracelet winners at the table, but every single player had a WSOP final table appearance to their name.
Seat 1: Sherkhan Farnood -- 88,000
Seat 2: Phil Ivey -- 139,000
Seat 3: Spencer Lawrence -- 113,500
Seat 4: Jeffrey Lisandro -- 165,000
Seat 5: Ivo Donev -- 65,000
Seat 6: Jeff Duvall -- 136,000
Seat 7: Howard Lederer -- 283,500
Seat 8: Mark Gregorich -- 104,000
As with all finals, someone has to drop first, and on this occasion, that man was Stephen Lawrence. Enjoying his third WSOP final table of the year, Lawrence’s swan song came courtesy of Jeff Duvall (right) who made a higher two pair in a game of stud hi-lo.With Jeff Lisandro, Phil Ivey and a plucky Mark Gregorich taking seventh to fifth respectively, it would be the other Brit at the table who would snap up fourth. All in on the river of an Omaha Hi-Lo board of K-J-7-2-6, Duvall ran into the A-4-5-9 of Lederer who had an A-2-4-6 low and a rivered nut flush for the high.
With Lederer himself finishing in third after a number of failed encounters, we were left with a rare Austria versus Afghanistan encounter, Bulgarian born chess master Ivo Donev holding the lead with a two to one chip advantage. However, with the clock fast approaching five in the morning, it was businessman Sherkhan Farnood who would come out smelling of roses, quickly turning the tables before finishing off his foe with a mere pair of eights in a game of stud.
While the H.O.R.S.E event was being played out, event three’s £5,000 Omaha freezeout was beginning to gather speed with EPT San Remo winner Jason Mercier amassing chips like there was no tomorrow. With the first five bracelets going to non-American players, could he become the first US resident to taste WSOPE gold?
1st Sherkhan Farnood (Afghanistan) -- £76,999
2nd Ivo Donev (Austria) -- £48,125
3rd Howard Lederer (USA) -- £30,250
4th Jeff Duvall (UK) -- £22,000
5th Mark Gregorich (USA) -- £17,188
6th Phil Ivey (USA) -- £13,750
7th Jeff Lisandro (Italy) -- £11,000
8th Spencer Lawrence (UK) -- £8,938